The Gujarat Congress unit was afraid enough of the BJP’s reach that they flew 44 legislators to Bangalore. This reminds me of what happened in Tamil Nadu, post the death of Jayalalithaa. The number of defections that have happened in the past couple of days has been outstanding. Every time this happens, one has to wonder how any of these dealings is constitutionally valid. No governor should stand behind this.

What’s going to happen to the already tenuous state of the India-Pakistan peace process? The article argues that the very fact that there is going to an interim PM and then a new one means that this is a setback. I kind of feel like this is a good thing, really. Granted, he attended Modi’s swearing in, but I honestly think that he didn’t do enough to challenge the military and the ISI. Bargaining with him was always about fool’s gold, because he was a man with very little leverage. Let the chips fall where they may. Maybe everybody will be better off this way.

Article speaks for itself. I would just like to point out one thing though. Why are we talking about air defense preparedness in light of attacks on the India-Pakistan border? Are we really talking about conventional capabilities in 2017?

This should have been the first headline. My apologies. There was an Op-Ed in the 29th July version of the Hindu (today) on the shrinking space in the opposition and the fact that there is no viable leader around which people like Nitish Kumar can sort of rally behind. There’ll be more to write on this matter in the future, that’s for sure.

I’m not trying to make value judgements here. I just want to understand what the rationale behind asking a 10-year-old girl to raise a child is. Also, I thought abortion when the person in question is pregnant post-rape was legal in India? Am I wrong?

Gopalkrishna Gandhi (VP candidate) speaks out on the right to privacy and other issues. Not that it matters anymore. The interview also brings into question how Venkaiah Naidu would behave if and when he is confirmed to have been elected as VP. VPs have generally been very quiet on the national stage, whatever their political affiliations have been.

The story (as far as we know it) of what went down with the grand alliance In Bihar. The Prakash Utsav invitation was the first signs of a problem. I can’t believe that Lalu Prasad did not see this coming. A lot of people have him down as a simpleton who just happens to be in politics, but in my opinion, he is a very shrewd actor. At least he was. He might have been blinded by the fact that his son was the one who had been implicated in corruption allegations. Those are the chains that are the toughest to bear.